Pausing, Riannon observed as Roxanne and Harper walked out of the house and searched for her. She remembered that scene well. It was as if she wanted to help them herself because, since she had no desire to see anyone, she had wandered into the woods alone.
Everything was too much for her; the people who sneered at her, the people who offered their sympathy and pity. It was a horrible night on so many levels. She had walked deep into the forest and considered going to her favourite site, The Silver Lake, when she was attacked.
Riannon saw Harper shift into her wolf form after she had been encouraged by Roxy once again. She hadn’t bothered trying to listen to what the fox was saying. Did it really matter? What mattered was that in the light provided by the full moon, Harper’s wolf indeed looked brown. This revelation broke her heart bit by bit.
After all this time, it had been her sister-in-law all along.
Ria always knew Harper did not like her. In light of recent discoveries, she could understand the motive.
Nonetheless, was the possibility of being with Ash, which wasn’t a real possibility, worth her becoming a murderer?
They found Riannon’s past self in a few short minutes, and Roxanne motioned for the wolf to attack, choosing to remain in the shadows. Harper hesitated just for a second, then charged at the Luna, who was bent over, leaning on a tree for support. The poison in her blood system had accumulated and reached a concentration that began to affect her, causing her to weaken by the second. Right now, her legs could barely move. She was so defenceless that when the huge wolf knocked her off her feet, Ria stumbled.
Stili, Riannon was no weakling. Even in the past! Her desire to live burned in her as she grabbed the nearest fallen branch and fiercely fought the werewolf off for as long as she could. It was the best she could do as the drug drained her of every ounce of power preventing her from shifting. Unfortunately, Ria’s defence did not last long as Harper grabbed the stick with her canines and snapped it in two, discarding it.
Ria crawled away, desperately trying to bide some time in the waning hope that someone, anyone, would come to her aid. Much like, back when she actually lived in that moment, no one came.
Riannon’s body was covered in scratches and cuts from the fight. Pain soared through her, yet, when the wolf dug its teeth into her thigh and ripped off a piece of her flesh, Ria screamed as she was launched to a greater level of searing agony.
The feral, primal sound remained unheard by anyone with the party still in full swing while they had the best night of their lives.
The present Riannon felt a tear roll down her cheek.
This was horrible, disgusting, and inhuman. Despite not having actually to relive it, Ria recoiled as the betrayal, rejection, and brutality her past self suffered wound to a close. Watching this hurt.
“They will find out about everything !” she heard herself mutter in a desperate effort to talk herself out of this situation, “You will not get away with it!”
The ugly laughter, which she would never forget in her past life or this one, sounded in her ears as Roxanne kneeled beside and grabbed a fistful of her hair. “Dear Riannon, don’t you get it? I already have!”
She then forcefully threw Ria towards the ground and ordered the wolf, “Finish her off. Make sure there is nothing left.”
Harper hesitated again but then went straight for her belly, piercing it with her sharp teeth.
This was where her memories ended, probably because this was the moment she died.
The wolf’s muzzle was covered in her blood, and Ria’s own body was convulsing. She wasn’t gone just yet.
Roxy had walked away when she felt something was wrong and turned.
“Finish her off,” she repeated her order, but Harper didn’t move. “I said finish her off!”
The girl shifted back into hèr human form and fell to her knees, trembling.
“l can’t!” Harper refused, panting and trying her hardest to stand up. On wobbly knees, she moved behind the nearest tree and emptied her stomach until ,there was nothing left in her to empty.
Roxy swore loudly and picked up her evening dress, walking back to her almost-dead rival. Riannon lay there, helplessly bleeding out and barely breathing. She was unconscious, which was probably why Riannon couldn’t remember herself lying there like that.
“You need to finish what you started!” the fox growled, sounding as if she was annoyed.
“I-can’t,” Harper stammered, barely maintaining the strength to talk, “Rox, I don’t-I don’t think I can.
“Too late to back down now” Roxanne snarled, smirking, “Look at what you have already done. There is no going back after something like this.”
“We can still take her to the pack doctor,” Harper pleaded, but her accomplice only laughed.
“And say what? That you accidentally almost ate her?” the fox mocked, “Don’t be ridiculous.”
It was then that Riannon noticed some movement at the back, and in less than a second, Marcus appeared and pinned Harper to the tree on which she was leaning lifting her up in the air. He was rùthless.
“What are-you-doing?” the pack’s princess stuttered in utter shock, desperately fighting for air as he squeezed her delicate neck in his large palm.
“Cleaning up,” the man replied without a hint of ,sentiment in his eyes.
“You are early!” Roxanne complained, “l am not done here!”
“l can see that” the warrior bantered as he rolled his eyes, “lt seems you have forgotten we are on the clock here. They are both supposed to be dead!”
“What?” Harper started scratching him and fighting for her life just like Riannon had just a few minutes prior.
It wasn’t working, though. He was much bigger and stronger. He was a trained warrior and Harper had skipped most of her battle classes. As a wolf with Alpha blood, she could protect herself from a rogue if there was a need. However, she couldn’t do much against one of her brother’s men, who had exercised and trained hard every day.
The irony.
“What can I sáy, she is even weaker than I thought,” Roxy gr0aned, then looked at the n***d girl trying to survive with twisted pity, “For what it’s worth, Harp, I am sorry it came to this.”
“Screw. You.” Harper spat, giving her a glare full of hatred.
“Yeah, yeah,” Marcus chuckled, snapping her neck.
“Very sad.” He then dropped her to his feet and sneered to himself. “Exactly where a woman’s place should be.”
Roxy cringed at that and immediately folded her arms across her chest.
“Okay,” she sighed, “Now we need to make it look as if Riannon tried to kill Harper, and then Harper killed her but was mortally wounded in the process and didn’t make it. It’s a shame you killed her by breaking her neck.
I don’t see how a practically dead woman could do that.”
“Haven’t you heard?” Marcus snorted, “A woman with the right motivation can do anything. This Luna is known for being the best at everything. If you hadn’t poisoned her, we would have had a much more interesting fight between the two.”
At that moment, Riannon made a hoarse noise from where she lay which was loud enough to alert her murderers.
Marcus pushed off the tree under which Harper’s corpse had collapsed and got closer to his Luna.
“Allow me,” he offered, but Roxy stopped him at the very last moment.
“Wait!” she moved closer and kneeled next to Ria, “
I’ve wanted to do this from day one. I want to make sure it’s done by me.”
She let out her claws and slashed them across Riannon’s neck. The blood gushed out, soaking the grass underneath her and painting it in crimson red. This ,only brought relief to the Luna, whose suffering finally ended.
Riannon stood watching the whole scene with her fists clenched before marching to the two spies. Marcus helped Roxanne up when she reached them. She tried to slap the fox, alas her hand slipped through her as if there was nothing there. She tried to hit her again and again, knowing it was impossible. Nonetheless, she couldn’t stop.
“This was satisfying.” Roxy gloated, letting out a little laugh. “Can you imagine that she looked down at me the whole time? Even when she was clearly losing.
The audacity!”
“Forget about it,” the warrior said, getting back to Harper’s body and picking her up in his arms, “Look at her now. The last person to laugh laughs best. That’s you.”
Ria smirked at his words. Oh, no. It wouldn’t be Roxy. The last person to laugh or to stand would be her.
She would have her last laugh when both of them were dead.
“It’ ll look bad your sister-inlaw wasn’t in her wolf form,” Marcus stated plainly when he threw Harper on top of Riannon, “How are we going to explain her being n*ked and not turning?”
“Don’t bother yourself with this.” The manipulative fox prompted, preparing to leave, “l can talk my future husband into anything. Just make it look as if Riarnnon attacked Harper, and that’s it. ‘ll take care of the rest.”
“Onyx,” Ria called for her wolf, “That’s enough.I know everything now. Take me back.”
“There are other things you need to see,” 0nyx replied, and everything went dark.
Riannon blinked and found herself in her ex-husband’s office. He was sitting at his desk and looked gloomy in the darkness of the room. He had stubble on his face, which was unusual for him, and this was when she realised it wasn’t the same day.
“It wasn’t your fault, my love,” Roxy soothed, appearing with a glass of whiskey in her hand, “You know it wasn’t your fault, right?”
She placed the drink in front of him, and he took it without hesitation in a big gulp. Then more followed until it was emptied. At the same time, Roxanne smirked, and Ria made a mental note to never eat or drink anything Roxy touched.
“l pushed her too hard. She went mad because of me,” he said with some bitterness in his voice, “She killed my sister because of that- that other girl-“
“You useless narcissist!” Riannon growled at him, realising he meant her.
“It all happened two months ago. All guilty wolves were punished.” Roxy massaged his shoulders, and he m0aned, closing his eyes, trying to relax. “Your ex-wife was killed by your sister, a hero, and the two who helped Riannon set the trap were punished too. Those girls, Tatiana and Aria, knew what they were doing. You handled it then.”
“I just-can’t forget their faces when I ripped their hearts out,” Brayden said, causing Riannon to stop breathing.
What was he talking about? Did he kill her friends too? Did he investigate anything at all?
“You are an Alpha. You have to move on from this.”
Roxanne insisted, “For your people, for your mate, and for your heir.”
“You are right,” he sighed heavily, “Let’s change the topic. It’s a big day for you, and I don’t want to ruin it. We are going to meet your brother.”
“Yes.’ The fox’s lips curled into a sly smile, but Brayden didn’t see this as she stood behind him.
“On top of everything, he is an Alpha!” the werewolf continued, “That’s very good news considering what we have been dealing with lately. This probably means you aren’t an Omega after all. I knew the Moon Goddess wouldn’t give me an omega mate.”
Ria wanted to slap him or at least throw something at him. However, it didn’t seem possible.
“Yes,” Roxy affirmed, barely holding back laughter as she stood behind him, “He also says I am a special wolf, remember? I still can’t believe my family gave me up for my protection.”
Riannon ran her palm over her face. How could he believe in something so stupid? There literally couldn’t be any proof! This stuff could only happen in books!
When he took another sip, she knew nothing she had observed was simple. He was broken and devastated.
And drunk. And probably poisoned too. None of which made her any less angry at him, though.
“How could I forget?” Brayden curled his lips weakly, “This is the main reason we are going to your brother’s pack.”
Darkness surrounded Riannon even before she could think about what it meant.
Given the events she had witnessed through Onyx she didn’t expect the next scene, which unfolded before her eyes, to shock her when she thought she was now ready for anything.
Brayden was on his knees, beaten to a pulp. Both his eyes were swollen, and his clothes were torn. Four men held him so he couldn’t move or escape, and Castiel was standing in front of him with a bored expression on his face. Roxy was next to him and looked happy.
“Why?” Brayden spat blood on the ground and looked at his tormentors. Riannon wondered if he now realised what had happened, and how he had been tricked by the foxes.
“Nothing personal,” Castiel smirked, grasping a fistfull of Brayden’s hair with one hand and growing out his claws on the other, “You are just in my way!”
Brayden watched as his so-called mate laced her arms around the torso of the man who was about to kill him. His face contorted painfully, and Riannon couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.
“All this time,” he gritted through his teeth, looking at Roxy, “You-“
“You guessed correctly.” She mockingly praised him with a sneer, “All this time. Me.”
“The baby?” he asked, looking at her belly with teary eyes.
“Not yours, thank Goddess,” she smirked, “But do not worry. Soon it wouldn’t even matter. When I take the pack into my hands, no one is going to remember their naive previous Alpha. It’s not like they have much time left to live either.”
“Enough,” Castiel snapped, growing tired of this exchange. One of his eyes gleamed red, and then, in one swift move, he tore Brayden’s head off.
Ria felt sick watching him.
He looked at the bleeding head in his hands and threw it to the side, wiping his hands lazily.
Darkness surrounded her again, and in all honesty, Riannon was ready to wake up from this nightmare. She was exhausted.
However, when she blinked, she found herself in the middle of a battlefield. The recent events left her mind at once as her eyes focused on a figure of a man in the distance. He stood on top of a small hill, clenching a dead grey wolf to his chest.
A scream desperately struggled to escape her throat as she recognised Gideon, covered in blood. She ran toward him, her body moving through the foxes and bears who were surrounding Gideon as they snarled aggressively.
“Gideon.” She wanted to scream, but barely any sound left her mouth.
She was beside him in no time, recognising Reid’s wolf Nox, who was dead too.
Everyone was dying.
“Sleep, my loyal Beta and friend.” Gideon placed him carefully on the ground before standing up. Around him, werewolves and lycans were losing the battle. This was unbelievable. “I will make the ones who betrayed the Union pay for this,” he growled menacingly and shifted.
Riannon looked around them, realising he had no chance. There were too many of them and no one at a close enough distance to help him. Every lycan and werewolf was fighting. Then she noticed that some wolves were fighting other wolves.
Her heart was beating so fast that she felt it somewhere in her throat. Tears were suffocating her as she saw her mate fight a battle he couldn’t win. Foxes and bears threw themselves at him, and he killed them one by one. Until a moment came when there were too many of them attacking him altogether in a large group, and he couldn’t defend himself anymore. He was buried under their bodies. Nevertheless, he did not give up and kept snapping his sharp teeth and digging his claws into his enemies until his very last breath left his body.
A true King. A true Alpha.
Ria couldn’t believe her eyes. The pain from the scene she witnessed was unbearable, and she fell to her knees, unable to remain standing. Even if she was an incorporeal spirit.
She clenched her fists, trying to steady her breath.
Finally, the foxes and bears left the place where Gideon fought just a few seconds prior, and she saw him laid on the ground in his wolf form. Still majestic and beautiful. Not a drop of life left in him.
“Gideon!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, closing her eyes, as tears streamed down her face.
When she finally opened them, she heard a loud growl and two strong hands were pinning her down.